by Jamie Davis
Another reporter called out: “What action is that, Director Kane?”
“Starting this morning, Red Legs in cooperation with members of the National Guard will collect and transport all nonessential chanter personnel residing in the Enclaves to safety camps. There we may focus our efforts to limit their use of magic.”
Elaine stood aghast.
A surge of reporters shouted additional questions. One voice brayed above the rest: “What do you mean by ‘nonessential,’ Director Kane?”
“’Nonessential’ refers to any chanter who is not integral to the operation of our infrastructure. Any business employing chanters in the legal use of magic should apply for approval if they wish for their employees to be released from the camps. Existing registered techs will be given preference, and those we’ve already identified as particularly useful will be pulled out of the transports prior to their leaving. Understand, this is done for everyone’s safety. Once we’ve ensured that the chanters no longer pose a societal threat, they will be allowed a safe return to their homes. But rest assured, we will be rounding up those chanters living outside the law and put an end to their charm running once and for all.”
Elaine thought about how far Kane had gone from the man she’d known to the monster he was today. She remembered how they first met. He had been a refugee off one of the boats, only a boy at the time. She remembered a family across the hall from hers, fostering him after he arrived. He was quiet, rarely talking to anyone. Artos Merrilyn had been the head of the relief organization that saw to the care and disposition of refugees at the time. He looked in on young Ricky, as he was known then, quite often. Elaine remembered her parents wondering at the man’s interest in the boy. He seemed nothing special at the time, although, of course, that would change.
As they grew up, Elaine and Ricky had become close — inseparable by their seventeenth birthdays. He was everything.
And then he changed.
Ricky grew darker, his mood shifting from one day to the next, and always without warning. She became concerned when he’d disappear into his hideaway for days without light. Elaine remembered when she followed him once, banged on the door to his hideout, begging him to come out. He refused, and Elaine used a trick he’d shown her to get inside. She had worked the flows, patiently directing them into the keyhole until she eventually opened the lock. Walking down the long passageway to the room at the end, Elaine had found Ricky doing the unthinkable, killing living things to feed something bottomless in himself. Using Sable.
She turned and left him, running back up the passage and shutting the door behind her.
They stayed together for a few more months. Elaine tried everything to make him quit. But no matter what she did, Ricky continued to use. He never hurt people, always using his power on random animals, mostly mice and rats, draining their life in secret. Eventually, she ran out of options and she confronted Ricky about his addiction.
And that was that.
Years later, she heard a familiar voice on TV. The face was different and the name had changed, but she knew who it was. Her Ricky. He’d somehow risen to power in the middling government to become the Agency Director, charged with policing all magic.
Now, in the present, Elaine watched that man she’d once loved order the destruction of all she held dear. And now, finally, she knew what he was doing. She saw him for who and what he was.
Elaine had appealed to his humanity, begging him to leave their daughter alone. Now, as she listened to his press conference, Elaine knew he had no humanity to appeal to. She realized what it was he was trying to do … much like he’d done with the cockroaches.
She felt an Arctic chill.
She might have stopped all of this years before if she’d only followed through and called the authorities. Now, with Kane’s last statement, Elaine knew she had to warn Winnie.
She hobbled back to her kitchen table and picked up her phone. She dialed then put the phone to her.
Winnie didn’t pick up, so Elaine redialed.
Then she kept redialing until the first Red Leg banged on her door.
CHAPTER 14
Winnie watched buildings pass as Danny drove them to the steel mill. The knot in her stomach was getting worse. They had approached from underground the last time, in the dead of night, through sewer and steam tunnels. It was different in the hazy orange daylight, in a world plagued by constant storms. She looked up at the swirling dust and thought again about how she had to find someone — anyone — who could manipulate magic like her.
Winnie sat up straighter in her seat, noting a change in the light pouring into the car. The hazy orange glow was now a clear blue sky. An impossibly bright sun blazed in an instant. A line had been drawn across the sky, creating a barrier to keep the swirling dust at bay.
They were moments from their destination.
Victor was right. Something strange was happening.
Danny pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Victor’s unmarked cruiser. Tufts of rich green grass and wildflowers pushed up through cracks in the pavement. Winnie jumped out of the car and looked around. Outside, the boundary was even clearer. Swirling orange dust stopped as if striking a glass dome.
How could none of the news agencies be reporting this?
“It’s remarkable, isn’t it?” Victor asked, surprising Winnie from nowhere.
“I don’t know what to say. The last time I saw the clear blue sky was when I used my magic to push it all away.”
“I know. I still don’t understand all that’s happening here, but I can tell you for sure that it’s expanding. There was only a small spot directly over the mill building before. Now it circles the block. This is one of the reasons why you needed to come. If there’s a way to replicate this in other cities on a larger scale, I thought you might be able to figure it out.”
Winnie nodded and tuned her vision to the magical spectrum. Wisps came from the building’s center, like frayed strings pulled from a piece of fabric. They were random — she couldn’t connect them to any spell she knew. It was raw magic, without form or order.
She looked at Danny and Victor. “How do we get inside?”
“This way,” Victor said, then took them to a door in the side of the building leading to a long hallway.
Winnie and Danny followed him inside. She reached out to grip Danny’s hand as a wave of trepidation swept her. She’d lost so much in this place; knots of tension tightened her gut as she trembled at the memories.
Victor led them to a doorway that opened into the old steel mill’s central room. It was significantly different than she remembered. The air was fresh and clean. Bright sunlight filtered down from above. The scent of fresh wildflowers filled her nose.
She took a deep breath, looked down from the edge of the metal catwalk, and saw green everywhere, claiming metal and concrete as it yawned outward from the crater. She glanced at Victor and Danny — both men appeared awestruck, but Danny definitely more so.
Had she done this? And if so, how could she do it again?
This was what the world was supposed to look like. Nature in evidence like she’d never seen. The city had a few parks and plenty of trees, but nothing like this. Those frail plants were missing the vibrant life so present in this place.
“Come on,” Victor urged. “I’ll show you how to get down.”
Danny and Winnie followed the inspector to a stairway. Amazingly, halfway to the floor, it turned into a gentle, green, grass-covered slope leading to the broad meadow below. Insects buzzed from place to place as she started downward. They all had a sort of glow, and in the magical spectrum, Winnie could see the fine tendrils of magic emanating from each one. It was moments before she realized that they weren’t insects. They were tiny, human-like figures — an incredible sight that she had to take in.
Victor turned from the sloping hill below and looked back at Winnie, smiling. “I told you. There’s something special here, something you needed to see.”
&
nbsp; “Yes, but this is — ” Winnie stopped, searching for the words to describe not only what she saw but the feeling it evoked. The sudden shift in her emotions as she stepped downward, going from doubt and fear to a sense of calm and peace, was jarring.
“Hello,” said a tiny voice from beside her as she stepped onto the grass.
Winnie looked to the side, startled by a tiny winged girl hovering in the air beside her. “Uh, hello … I’m Winnie.”
“I know who you are. Everyone here knows who you are.”
Victor laughed. “I see you’ve met Seelie. She’s a brave one. Seelie was the first one to talk to me, too.”
Winnie looked at the tiny face and saw something familiar. “I feel like I know you, like we’re connected somehow.”
“We are, Momma.”
Winnie stopped. They’d reached the floor of the mill, now covered in swards of grass and flowers. Winnie stood amid the lush growth, staring at the tiny figure bobbing beside her. She didn’t have the words to express what she wanted to say, and in the end, uttered a single, questioning word.
“How?”
Seelie shrugged and laughed. “I don’t know. One minute I was with you, and then I was here in this place. It’s a very nice place, isn’t it?”
“Yes … yes, it is,” Winnie replied.
“I met Victor and felt his connection to you. I helped him understand what he saw. Then I watched as he helped you. He’s very nice.”
Winnie glanced at a now-embarrassed Victor then turned back to Seelie. “What about the others here? Are they all lost children like you?”
“No, they are the others who were lost here before the change. The Lady brought us back so we could tend this place and help it grow.”
“The Lady?”
“You’ve met her before, Momma. She told you to call her Brigid. That’s one of her names. She has many, for all of the people in all of their places. We call her the Lady.”
“Are there many places like this?” Winnie asked, wondering if this was how she could find other chanters like herself. “Where are they?”
“I think there used to be many like this, all over the world,” Seelie answered. “Now there is but one. When you broke the machine, you opened a place in the world for this all to exist again. It is so beautiful here. Thank you.”
Winnie looked around at the terror turned to majesty and smiled at Seelie. “Yes, Seelie … yes, it is.”
Winnie walked towards the center of the large room, heading for the crater’s edge. Danny and Victor fell in behind as she strolled through the ankle-high grass. Morning dew kissed her legs. Fairies flitted by, waving at Seelie while giving wary looks to Winnie and her friends.
“Why do they look at us that way, Seelie?” Winnie asked.
“They remember more of what happened here than I do,” Seelie replied. “It makes it hard to trust humans.”
Winnie gave a grim smile, nodding in understanding. She knew all too well what they’d endured during their final moments on earth. Maybe it was best that they didn’t trust humans — that might serve to protect the magic they made here.
“This place is changing the world outside, Seelie. Do you know why others can’t see it?” she asked. “Why haven’t other humans noticed the clear skies and come to investigate?”
“The Lady doesn’t allow others to see what is happening. Only the invited may come, and only they can see what is happening.”
“What is happening, Seelie?” Winnie asked.
“This is an opening to Avalon. It is both what was and could be again.”
“So that’s Avalon down there?” Winnie pointed to the crater, then stepped over the edge, tuning her senses to the magic around her.
She felt the difference immediately. The magic here was pure and unfettered. Compared to the magic in this place, the rest of the world felt like forcing her way through wet cement.
Winnie kept walking towards the pool. As she approached, the landscape expanded. By the time she reached the water’s edge, the tiny pool from above had expanded into a broad, mist-covered lake. The shores were lined with trees as far as the eye could see, trunks swallowed in the haze.
Winnie recognized this place: the shoreline from her dream. The place where she met Brigid. She looked around, searching the mists on-shore and across the water.
No sign of the lady in white.
“She’s not here, Momma,” Seelie said from behind Winnie. “The Lady only comes when someone she deems worthy is in need of instruction. She will not return. Few are those who see the Lady. Fewer still are those who see her more than once.”
“But I don’t know what to do except find others like myself!”
“She must have offered you council,” Seelie said. “Just as she did for Victor.”
“She spoke to Victor?” Winnie spun around to face him. “What did she tell you?”
“That I was your protector, meant to help you find a great talisman.” He shrugged. “I don’t understand it all, or how exactly I’m supposed to help, but I’m trying, Winnie.”
“A talisman? What talisman?”
“A sword, perhaps?” Victor said. “I’m not sure what’s real and what isn’t. Seelie showed me the time when magic was offered to mankind. There was a great sword, a king’s gift. It seemed somehow important, but I’m not sure I understand how a sword could help us today.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to me, either,” Winnie agreed, her voice bitter. “And it doesn’t help me find what I’m looking for. I was hoping there would be some clue, some link, to the ones I search for. Instead, I find this strange place full of riddles.”
Winnie was getting angry and she didn’t know why. She looked back at the lake before turning to Victor, Danny, and Seelie.
“Sorry. I need to think about this for a while before coming back.”
“It’s alright, Momma. It’s not always the right time to reveal what is sought. Your search will bear fruit if it is meant to be. I hope you return soon.”
Winnie looked at the tiny fairy child and smiled. “I’ll try.”
With that, Winnie started back towards the crater’s edge, her view shifting as she walked, narrowing with every step until she reached the edge and was again standing at the side of a grassy crater with a small pool of still water at the bottom.
“Winnie,” Danny spoke for the first time since their arrival. “Was that tiny girl really our — ”
“Daughter? In some way, yes. I think she was. But she’s much more than that now. I feel like she’s connected the present with eternity.”
She kept ascending the gentle slope until her feet touched the metal tread. The moment it did, her phone bleated and buzzed in her pocket — a slurry of missed messages loading all at once.
Same for Victor, judging by the way he dug at his pocket. The area must mask their signals. She pulled out the phone and saw several missed calls from her mother, along with a single voicemail.
Feeling a sudden ugly dread, Winnie tapped her phone to play the message, already running toward the parking lot.
CHAPTER 15
Elaine dialed again and again while looking out her kitchen window.
Police, Red Legs, and soldiers lined the street outside her building. They were grabbing at people as they ran by, tackling them to the ground, then herding their captives into waiting buses with barred windows.
Elaine could hear the screams from captive chanters and the shouts from the officers rounding them up.
She couldn’t believe what was happening. Kane was really doing it. He was going to take them all to camps somewhere.
She had to warn Winnie.
She dialed again, frustrated that she couldn’t get through.
There was a banging on her apartment door. Someone was demanding that she open up, let them search her place.
She knew she didn’t have long. This time, she went to Winnie’s voicemail.
“Winnie, it’s Mother,” Elaine said, taking a deep breath to cal
m her voice. “Kane did it. He’s rounding up all the chanters in the Enclave and taking them to camps somewhere outside the city. They’re at the door now. I have to open up or they’ll break it down.” She paused again, took another breath. “Winnie, honey, they are looking for you, too. And all your friends. Run. Hide. Get somewhere safe and stay there — ”
The wooden jam splintered. Red Legs in riot gear rushed into the room.
Elaine dropped the phone and hobbled as fast as she could toward the bedroom. A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders from behind and yanked her to the ground. Elaine only heard herself screaming for seconds under their swinging clubs before she lost consciousness.
CHAPTER 16
“Damn it, Danny!” Winnie cursed. “Drive faster!”
“I can’t go any faster! We need to stay behind Victor so he can escort us to the Enclave.”
The car lurched as Danny downshifted to navigate a curve before accelerating on the other side. She felt sick. They were too late. She could feel it in her gut. Her mother needed help, and Winnie was about to fail her.
She’d played the phone message over and over again, hearing her mother screaming at the end: Run, Winnie, run! until she was silenced by what sounded like a sudden blow, then loud shouting followed by a dead connection.
She switched her view to an app Tris had installed, allowing her to track her mother’s phone. It was still in her apartment. Even if she wasn’t there, her phone was.
The car slowed. Winnie looked the window toward some sort of police roadblock ahead. Victor had turned onto a side street. Danny turned to follow. Then Victor stopped his cruiser and Danny pulled up behind him.
“What is he doing?” Winnie sounded desperate, even to herself.
“Hold on, Win … ”
Victor jogged back to their car. Danny rolled down the window. “There are roadblocks surrounding the Enclave,” Victor said. “No one is getting in or out without official approval.”
“But you’re the city’s chief inspector!” Winnie shouted.